fr augustine - may 14

Mother’s Day Anna Jarvis, who worked to get the President and Congress to recognize Mother’s Day as a national holiday on the second Sunday of May, was insistent that “mother’s” be written in its singular form. It was not a celebration of motherhood in general but a thanksgiving for each individual mother, described by Jarvis as “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world”. For Catholics it’s appropriate that this holiday falls in May, the month of Mary the Mother of Jesus whom we address as “Our Blessed Mother”.

About fifteen years ago, visiting the South of Spain, I noticed a number of unusual statues and paintings of the Blessed Virgin Mary in several different churches. Mary was shown with a big floppy hat and with baby Jesus held in one arm and a lamb in the other, or with a shepherd’s crook and surrounded by sheep. I discovered that this particular image of Mary is called La Divina Pastora (the Divine Shepherdess). Being male and excessively logical this idea disturbed me. It is Jesus who is the Good Shepherd - as we were reminded last weekend in the Gospel. The Bible gives us a picture of Mary as the wife of Joseph the carpenter; she seems to be a town girl rather than a country girl; and there is definitely no association of her with sheep.

The devotion dates from the very early 1700s when Fray Isidoro, a Capuchin priest, asked an artist in Seville to paint a picture of Mary dressed as a shepherdess. The idea spread to Portugal, to South America (where the Divina Pastora is patroness of the Venezuelan National Militia) and even as far as the Philippines. To me it still seems odd: I’ve often seen Mary with a crown but never before with a sombrero! Yet I suspect it is an expression of the insight that the greatest “pastoral care” - feeding, protecting, sacrificing - that we ever get is from our mothers. And as we thank and honor our individual mothers on Mother’s Day this year, let us also give thanks for the special care which Mary has for her Son’s flock.

Confirmation Next weekend Bishop Noonan will be in the parish for our annual Confirmation. He usually comes to confer the sacrament on our candidates on a Saturday at the 5 p.m. Mass but this time he has chosen to come to the 11:30 Mass - that is, on Sunday May 21
st. As you know, that’s a fairly full Mass anyway. With the Confirmation candidates and their families occupying the two sections which flank the central aisle you may not just lose your regular seat but even find it hard to get any seat. We will, of course, open up the extension but some people may prefer to come to an earlier Mass on that day. If you do get bumped from your seat, give thanks at least that these young people are committing themselves to follow Jesus and join all of us in the parish in praying for them.